Taylor Martinez!

[bshirt]

That "if it hits your hands you catch it" is such a crock. Yes, we are dropping too many fairly routine balls (and this really seems to be BK), but a lot of the incompletions that people are calling drops are balls that would be way above average catches. Yes, you need to make some of those catches, but they are not "drops". The ball in the first half that Bell dove for and got both hands on it. That would have been a spetacular catch, it was not a drop.

TM again seems to get better each week. Not perfect, but the guy is certainly making numerous winning plays every game lately.

Total BS.

If the pass hits your hands you should catch it. Expecting to only catch passes that hit them perfectly between the numbers is unrealistic and self-defeating (heck, BK & Turner drop those too). Watch Oklahoma St or the Sooner's wrs, or Stanford's or Oregon's, etc, etc.

Our wrs simply need to do better and giving them BS excuses isn't the path to improvement.

GBR!!

Might be a bad example tonight, couple costly drops so far.

Haha...you're right! Makes sense that would happen.

:corndance

GBR!!

 

[HANC]

I have in Taylor's corner for the long haul...you can go see all of my posts this off-season and more... I think his throwing motion is horrible, and yes, he has made very bad reads and decisions, but I have said all along that everyone should lay off of him and realize that he was making "freshman" mistakes last season, and this year would be different... It has... the staff has put the hand-cuffs on his running..... they have only started to turn him loose late last week. Once they let him cut loose, you will see the "old Taylor" running form...he even showed signs today of getting back to some of the "bursts" we saw last year...Furthermore, even with the motion, he is starting to throw the ball with confidence and has played his 2 best "complete" games of his career the past 2 weeks...(maybe not statistically)...

He is only in his second year and missed time last year and wasn't healthy when he did play at end. He has made great strides and is moving up weekly in the QB record books..... If he continues to grow, he will be one of the most prolific QB's Nebraska has had...mark my words.... Plus the kid has had to endure more outside negativity and microscope than any other QB in NU history...

Time to support the kid.....win or lose... and appreciate his talents, and accept his faults

 

[ZRod]

I never thought Taylor could be this exciting with out rushing for over a hundred yards. He had me applauding his decisions in the first half. He's shown a lot of maturity and growth so far this season and I'm really excited to see what the next two years will be like, especially if he can get a decent line in front of him. The only thing I can really fault him for with out looking at the game again were a bad read on a read option and some of those miscommunications on passes.

Burkhead's touch down was a thing of beauty. The pitch was defiantly old school, waiting as long as he could just like Gill, Frazier, Frost would of done. Wanted to get the Taylor Martinez is a boss thread going then but I didn't want to jinx him.

 

[3rd and long]

That "if it hits your hands you catch it" is such a crock. Yes, we are dropping too many fairly routine balls (and this really seems to be BK), but a lot of the incompletions that people are calling drops are balls that would be way above average catches. Yes, you need to make some of those catches, but they are not "drops". The ball in the first half that Bell dove for and got both hands on it. That would have been a spetacular catch, it was not a drop.

TM again seems to get better each week. Not perfect, but the guy is certainly making numerous winning plays every game lately.

Total BS.

If the pass hits your hands you should catch it. Expecting to only catch passes that hit them perfectly between the numbers is unrealistic and self-defeating (heck, BK & Turner drop those too). Watch Oklahoma St or the Sooner's wrs, or Stanford's or Oregon's, etc, etc.

Our wrs simply need to do better and giving them BS excuses isn't the path to improvement.

GBR!!

That's too simplistic bshirt. You just can't say if hits you in the hands it has to be caught. I'm not talking about passes that hit receivers hands in stride and such, I'm talking about attempts like Bell's when he dove. I'm not giving excuses for them, I'm being realistic on what balls are "drops" and what balls would be above average to "great" catches. And when a receiver lays out in a dive, if he hangs onto it, it's a great catch.

Yes, I agree, there have been many balls that flat out are drops, but I still think a lot of the balls people here are classifying as "drops" are really not.

 

[bshirt]

That "if it hits your hands you catch it" is such a crock. Yes, we are dropping too many fairly routine balls (and this really seems to be BK), but a lot of the incompletions that people are calling drops are balls that would be way above average catches. Yes, you need to make some of those catches, but they are not "drops". The ball in the first half that Bell dove for and got both hands on it. That would have been a spetacular catch, it was not a drop.

TM again seems to get better each week. Not perfect, but the guy is certainly making numerous winning plays every game lately.

Total BS.

If the pass hits your hands you should catch it. Expecting to only catch passes that hit them perfectly between the numbers is unrealistic and self-defeating (heck, BK & Turner drop those too). Watch Oklahoma St or the Sooner's wrs, or Stanford's or Oregon's, etc, etc.

Our wrs simply need to do better and giving them BS excuses isn't the path to improvement.

GBR!!

That's too simplistic bshirt. You just can't say if hits you in the hands it has to be caught. I'm not talking about passes that hit receivers hands in stride and such, I'm talking about attempts like Bell's when he dove. I'm not giving excuses for them, I'm being realistic on what balls are "drops" and what balls would be above average to "great" catches. And when a receiver lays out in a dive, if he hangs onto it, it's a great catch.

Yes, I agree, there have been many balls that flat out are drops, but I still think a lot of the balls people here are classifying as "drops" are really not.

Yeah, I hear ya. You're right that some would take great catches. I guess Swift, Peterson & Davison spoiled me.

The last couple years of our wrs dropping balls is just really getting to me (like the Texas game last year). Just drives me nuts. I thought after NP leaving we'd miss his blocking but not his hands. Heh....I'm wrong again.

Sorry for the rant my friend......it's not "your" fault we're dropping balls everywhere. Someday I'll buy ya an ice cold one.

GBR!!

 

[huskerauggie]

Martinez has been a much better game manager this year, which is good to see. However, it seems to me like he has lost a step a little bit this year in terms of speed and explosiveness. Maybe I'm wrong.

I disagree... I think he lost the ROOM to show you his speed due to how weak our O-Line has been.

 

[huskerauggie]

That "if it hits your hands you catch it" is such a crock. Yes, we are dropping too many fairly routine balls (and this really seems to be BK), but a lot of the incompletions that people are calling drops are balls that would be way above average catches. Yes, you need to make some of those catches, but they are not "drops". The ball in the first half that Bell dove for and got both hands on it. That would have been a spetacular catch, it was not a drop.

TM again seems to get better each week. Not perfect, but the guy is certainly making numerous winning plays every game lately.

Granted, some of these would be 'spectacular' catches, but look at it this way.... If the receiver dove, switched directions mid-air, did a somersault, etc., hey - the spectacular part is out of the way. The spectacular part about those catches is getting your hands in position, not the actual hauling in of the pass. Once you're in that proper position, it's nothing but securing your hands around the ball. We have the same rule in baseball --- Dive to it, Slide to it, Backhand it, etc., if it hits your glove, it should be caught.

 

[bshirt]

Martinez has been a much better game manager this year, which is good to see. However, it seems to me like he has lost a step a little bit this year in terms of speed and explosiveness. Maybe I'm wrong.

I disagree... I think he lost the ROOM to show you his speed due to how weak our O-Line has been.

That's how I see it too. Oh boy, he gets stuffed by his first step so very often. Rex gets most of his yardage after breaking through a couple defenders most of the time but he's the only guy we have that can do that. But even SuperRex gets stuffed for nothing frequently.

Yep....most of the time there's just no open spaces to explode into. Sadly, I gotta agree our OLine is looking much worse than last year as far as run blocking.

 

[gobiggergoredder]

Yeah, Taylor has shut a lot of mouths.

Mine

 

[TJ Alum Husker]

Really like watching Martinez mature before our eyes. It looks like the lightbulb is finally starting to turn on. BTW - Bell had the wrong hand position on that diving catch. You cradle the ball to ensure it doesn't hit the ground when you dive like that. His hand position added to him not holding on to the ball when he rolled over IMHO

 

[3rd and long]

That "if it hits your hands you catch it" is such a crock. Yes, we are dropping too many fairly routine balls (and this really seems to be BK), but a lot of the incompletions that people are calling drops are balls that would be way above average catches. Yes, you need to make some of those catches, but they are not "drops". The ball in the first half that Bell dove for and got both hands on it. That would have been a spetacular catch, it was not a drop.

TM again seems to get better each week. Not perfect, but the guy is certainly making numerous winning plays every game lately.

Granted, some of these would be 'spectacular' catches, but look at it this way.... If the receiver dove, switched directions mid-air, did a somersault, etc., hey - the spectacular part is out of the way. The spectacular part about those catches is getting your hands in position, not the actual hauling in of the pass. Once you're in that proper position, it's nothing but securing your hands around the ball. We have the same rule in baseball --- Dive to it, Slide to it, Backhand it, etc., if it hits your glove, it should be caught.

The difference is you're not doing them at two seperate times, while you're diving, twisting, etc, you're doing that at the same time as trying to secure the ball. Big, big difference in trying to catch a football with your hands or a baseball in a glove.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

1) a lot of dropped balls. By that I mean balls that should be caught. By anyone. All season long.

2) Martinez is just carrying himself better. A lot of confidence under center. A lot more cool when things aren't looking so good.

3) Martinez and Burkhead are now officially a duo. They are almost equal partners in the offense and it works out better for each of them. They have one more year together.

 

[bshirt]

1) a lot of dropped balls. By that I mean balls that should be caught. By anyone. All season long.

2) Martinez is just carrying himself better. A lot of confidence under center. A lot more cool when things aren't looking so good.

3) Martinez and Burkhead are now officially a duo. They are almost equal partners in the offense and it works out better for each of them. They have one more year together.

#1......and last year too.

#3.......oh boy, those two are carrying our offense on their backs. Just imagine the numbers they would have if we had a good Oline and/or wrs who could catch the ball.

 

[roundegotrip]

Taylor's improvement is partially about decision making and letting the game come to him, but I think it's also about what he's doing with his eyes. He can get through more than one read now. When he gets into trouble, he scrambles and keeps his eyes downfield instead of just tucking and running. He's even starting to look safeties off, amazingly. He somehow managed to see Burkhead on that option pitch yesterday, and on that similar play passing to Rex when he was being pulled down last week. He's also gotten better at reading the coverage on his receivers and placing the ball where the DB can't make a play on it. I think the game is slowing down for Taylor and he is really starting to see the field.

I've thrown a lot of support behind Martinez over time, but I never expected him to take such big strides so quickly as a passer and as a game manager... if he keeps developing like this, he is going to be a nightmare for opposing defenses for the next two years.

 

[Guy Chamberlin]

In fairness, our offensive line is a lot better than when the season started.

They don't look as good when playing better defenses, but that's to be expected. Burkhead was able to maintain his average and Martinez generally had enough time to make decisions.

Did anyone think our offensive line would be playing better than our defensive line this season?